John 1:49

1:49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king ¹  of Israel!” ² 

John 1:46-47

1:46 Nathanael ³  replied, ⁴  “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” ⁵  Philip replied, ⁶  “Come and see.”

1:47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, ⁷  “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ⁸ 

John 1:45

1:45 Philip found Nathanael ⁹  and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also ¹⁰  wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

John 1:48

1:48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, ¹¹  “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, ¹²  I saw you.”

John 21:2

21:2 Simon Peter, Thomas ¹³  (called Didymus), ¹⁴  Nathanael ¹⁵  (who was from Cana ¹⁶  in Galilee), the sons ¹⁷  of Zebedee, ¹⁸  and two other disciples ¹⁹  of his were together.

¹ tn Although βασιλεύς (basileus) lacks the article it is definite due to contextual and syntactical considerations. See ExSyn 263.

² sn Nathanael’s confession – You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel – is best understood as a confession of Jesus’ messiahship. It has strong allusions to Ps 2:6-7, a well-known messianic psalm. What Nathanael’s exact understanding was at this point is hard to determine, but “son of God” was a designation for the Davidic king in the OT, and Nathanael parallels it with King of Israel here.

³ tn Grk “And Nathanael.”

⁴ tn Grk “said to him.”

⁵ sn Can anything good come out of Nazareth? may be a local proverb expressing jealousy among the towns.

⁶ tn Grk “And Philip said to him.”

⁵ tn Grk “said about him.”

⁶ tn Or “treachery.”

⁷ sn Nathanael is traditionally identified with Bartholomew (although John never describes him as such). He appears here after Philip, while in all lists of the twelve except in Acts 1:13, Bartholomew follows Philip. Also, the Aramaic Bar-tolmai means “son of Tolmai,” the surname; the man almost certainly had another name.

⁸ tn “Also” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

⁹ tn Grk “answered and said to him.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”

¹⁰ sn Many have speculated about what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. Meditating on the Messiah who was to come? A good possibility, since the fig tree was used as shade for teaching or studying by the later rabbis (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:11). Also, the fig tree was symbolic for messianic peace and plenty (Mic 4:4, Zech 3:10.)

¹¹ tn Grk “and Thomas.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

¹² sn Didymus means “the twin” in Greek.

¹³ tn Grk “and Nathanael.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

¹⁴ map For location see Map1-C3; Map2-D2; Map3-C5.

¹⁵ tn Grk “and the sons.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

¹⁶ sn The sons of Zebedee were James and John.

¹⁷ sn The two other disciples who are not named may have been Andrew and Philip, who are mentioned together in John 6:7-8 and 12:22.